TUESDAY, JANUARY 19
12:00 - 1:00 PM
Women in Horticulture Meeting & Lunch (separate ticket)
Garden Time’s Story: Women in Leadership
What began in 2011 as a volunteer prison garden project has grown into an influential workforce development organization, helping more than 100 incarcerated and formerly incarcerated Rhode Islanders each year build skills, confidence, and new opportunities. Hear firsthand from the women leaders of Garden Time as they share their journeys and the transformative power of horticulture. Discover how Garden Time's innovative programs - from in-prison programming and post-release job training to its Canopy Crew's work in tree stewardship, landscaping, and community composting - are cultivating meaningful careers, strengthening communities, and creating pathways to bright futures.
Kate Lacouture is the co-founder and executive director of Garden Time, and a landscape architect and licensed arborist in Providence, RI. She has been teaching incarcerated men and women green industry skills since 2011 and developed the Green Reentry Job Training Program in 2021. Kate will be joined by Garden Time’s Canopy Crew, a team of graduates of the training program, now Garden Time staff, who are working to improve canopy cover in historically underserved communities, and have become essential to the success of the Green Reentry program and local urban forestry initiatives.